Pachter expects 360 price cut at E3, PS3 and Wii to follow suit

Gaming industry analyst Michael Pachter has updated his predictions about the console price cuts he anticipates will occur this year. A Wedbush Securities update distributed this morning said, "We expect Microsoft to announce a price cut at this year's E3 Expo in June, and expect Sony and Nintendo to rapidly follow suit." Until then, Pachter expects that consoles sales will steadily decline, with the 3DS providing enough juice to bring things back into the positives in April.

The report predicts that Microsoft will likely capitalize on the success of Kinect by dropping the price of its core Xbox 360 bundle to "under $300," adding "we are confident that by holiday 2011, all three consoles will be at least $50 cheaper than they are today." Why, with that kind of money, we could almost buy a new fuel cell for our spaceyacht's hyperdrive!

Oh, right -- the report also predicts the invention of spaceyachts. We meant to mention that earlier.